Federal judge allows KKK to leaflet in Desloge

A Ku Klux Klan group has won a preliminary injunction allowing it to pass out literature in the streets in an eastern Missouri city.

Associated Press

A Ku Klux Klan group has won a preliminary injunction allowing it to pass out literature in the streets in an eastern Missouri city.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Traditionalist American Knights of the KKK were likely to prevail in their challenge to a Desloge (duh LOHZH) ordinance banning people from soliciting in the streets. The Klan claimed the ordinance violated its First Amendment right to free speech.

City officials say the 1999 law was meant to prevent people from going into the streets to solicit funds from motorists. The American Civil Liberties Union sued, saying the law also prevented groups from passing out handbills.

City Attorney Joe Goff says the city plans to rework its ordinance in a way that still would prohibit soliciting in the streets.